Fleeing a devastating personal loss, Rosie takes a job as an au pair with a Parisian family, and soon learns valuable lessons about family and culture, and memory and longing.
Lily King's highly acclaimed, award-winning debut novel is the story of Rosie, an American au pair in Paris whose coming of age defies all our usual conceptions of na vet and experience. Rosie is fleeing an unspeakable loss that has left her homesick for her family. As she awkwardly grasps for the words to communicate with and connect to Nicole, the cool, distant, and beautifully polished mother of the three children she cares for, Rosie's bond with the patriarch of the household develops almost too naturally. When Lola, the middle child, begins to suspect an indecent intimacy between Rosie and her father, Rosie moves to the south of France to care for Nicole's elderly guardian, the storyteller of the family's secrets. There, she discovers a past darkened by war and duplicity, and finally comes to understand the tragedy behind Nicole's elusive demeanor.